Ask Lemmy

i stop for peds at cross walks and they still call me an asshole and scream at me. happens multiple times per week.

or they don't go and i assume they want me to go... and they scream at me.

i don't get it.

The laws are weird. I've often been called a jerk, but when I check the laws they are on my side - or so ambiguous that nobody really knows what is right even though everyone thinks they do (whatever helps them against everyone else)

Bicycle riding, vegans, linux, dieting, crossfit, etc.

You dont know the normal ones, you know the foaming at the mouth loonies who wont shut up about it.

I think part of it is that there are a lot of bike riders in US cities that are jerks

A lot of the ones an average driver interacts with are...

Especially in a city most cyclists are only on public roads on their way to/from a trail and they prioritize avoiding cars.

It's just because of that, you never see them or don't notice them as you drive by.

What everyone notices is the selfish dicks clogging up traffic, and they're the ones who have made cycling a huge part of their identity, and they really want to pretend any criticism of them is a criticism of every bike rider, because it's the only chance to defend the problematic ones.

They're a tiny minority of cyclists, and most don't like them either.

It's too crazy to ride on the road with cars anymore. I live in a semi rural area that has been settled since the late 1600's. Most of the roads follow the old established trails. When I was younger, I didn't see any problems. Then again I was young, dumb, and bulletproof. Now I'm just dumb. We have a lot of rails to trails in the area so that's where I ride anymore. It just kinda drives me nuts that I have to load up the bike and drive to a place to ride it.

The big one here is sharing the road, which goes both ways. I don't have an issue with bikes on the road, but most of our small town's roads are one lane in each direction, and far too many bikes seem to think they're entitled to hog the entire lane going 15mph and holding up traffic. The rules in this area are for slow traffic to turn off to allow others to pass (both vehicles and bikes), which bikes almost never do. Then you have the clowns that'll ride 3 across and not let traffic pass, then get aggressive with drivers for honking.

Like yes bikes are legally permitted to use the road, but also be conscious that people have places to be, and your liesure stroll is holding up people from getting to work. Its almost always tourists that bog down the main highway and are jerks about it, most locals that ride bikes tend to stick to the many side streets that run parallel to the highway.

Now where my mom lives in the suburbs, they have the issue of kids on ebikes completely ignoring the rules of the road and causing accidents. These are little entitled rich kids with a big chip on their shoulders and zero supervision, blasting through intersections while ignoring signals, plowing the wrong way down a road, weaving through traffic, etc. Those little shits belong in jail.

I drive a sports car with a giant engine and ridiculous lack of utility. I like driving it a lot. I take every chance to drive it. BUT I appreciate every cyclist I see on the road immensely. I applaud every time a bike lane is built - even if it takes away a car lane I could use. Am I really part of a minority?